Almost the entire Windsor Professional Firefighters Association executive — five out of six board members — reside in the county, and that, Mayor Eddie Francis claims, is a big reason why saving city taxpayer dollars is not a high priority for them and talks with the employer have reached an impasse.

“I’m talking about the association’s decision makers — it’s hard to convince them this is hard on the city’s taxpayers when they’re not taxpayers in the city,” said Francis.

In fact, according to the city clerk’s office, the majority of those represented by the WFFA — 149 of 271 positions, or 55 per cent of its membership — live in neighbouring towns where their own homes and families are protected by volunteer firefighters.

While pointing out that “people can live where they want,” WPFA president Angelo Gertsakis countered that three of the six members of his board own property in Windsor, they have families in the city and the association itself owns a building and a business in the city.

Gertsakis questions the mayor bringing up the residency issue: “We’re a board and we make decisions based on facts … we all care about the City of Windsor.”

Earlier this week, Francis said the two sides were in a stalemate over efforts by the employer to find ways of mitigating a multimillion-dollar arbitrated award given to Windsor’s firefighters after more than eight years without a contract. The award provided a 15.1-per-cent pay hike, as well as a reduction in the work week the city argues could translate into the need for 31 new hires.

When the mayor and administration put forward a number of potential cost-saving options for discussion, Francis said they were rejected, with no alternatives offered by the association. He said the association’s executive argued instead for “the status quo” and suggested that the arbitrated award — representing up to $4 million a year in extra expenses — should be covered by additional funding. The current fire department budget is $35 million.

Gertsakis said his board felt the options presented by the employer “reduces the response times and reduces safety to citizens and safety to firefighters … that’s all that it comes down to.”

Francis said he was angered when he heard the firefighters association stating earlier in public that one of the employer’s suggestions is to eliminate one of Windsor’s eight fire stations. He said one the early proposals was indeed to get rid of a station but only in order to build a much larger fire hall at a location that would increase and improve coverage in the west and the south of the city.

“I, the CAO, the fire chief, all the councillors, we live in this city — safety is paramount, and we’re not going to put our names to anything that would compromise safety and security,” said Francis.

Residency requirements for municipal employees have been ruled unconstitutional by Canada’s courts, said city clerk Valerie Critchley.

“There are solutions we can arrive at together that can mitigate against these increases … options that don’t affect their salaries, that don’t affect their numbers,” said Francis. He said the corporation’s other employees, including CUPE workers accepting lump sum payments rather than wage hikes and the police department approving two years of budget freezes, have done their part.

Gertsakis said Friday it’s “not at all true” that his association doesn’t have alternative suggestions: “We’re looking at options now.”

Despite a breakdown in talks on Sunday — on the eve of Monday’s city budget session — Gertsakis and members of his board met briefly at city hall Thursday afternoon with the mayor and senior city administration, including CAO Helga Reidel and fire chief Bruce Montone. Gertsakis said the meeting went well and that the association is preparing a response.

A spokeswoman said fire chief Bruce Montone was leaving any public comments to the mayor in regards to labour negotiations with the association or on the future direction of the department.

“We’re looking at our options — I told them we prefer working with them,” Francis said of his first face-to-face with the five association board members who attended. “I told them I’ve got to deal with an economic reality here,” he said, adding the association will now compare Windsor’s situation to that of other cities.

Francis points to the most recent 2012 OMBI report, which compares municipal service levels among similar Ontario cities, Windsor is near the top when it comes to fire staffing costs per capita of population ($189.65 versus the Ontario average of $151.34 and London’s $144.62), as well as in operational costs per $1,000 in property assessment ($2.90 vs. Ontario’s $1.73 and Hamilton’s $1.57). Just looking at the number of fire suppression staff per 1,000 population, OMBI pegs Windsor at 1.17 vs. the Ontario average of 1.12 and London’s at .97.

“We’re the highest-cost fire service in Ontario — and that’s 2012, before the arbitrated award,” said Francis.

Windsor is tops when it comes to fire operating cost per vehicle run, with a per apparatus response cost averaging $3,576.37, compared to the OMBI provincial average of $2,324.82 (London’s was $2,576.26). One of the reasons, said Francis, is because Windsor firetrucks are staffed with four rather than three firefighters, something the mayor said is common at other Ontario fire departments.

“The kicker is, that’s before the latest award — the 2012 figures don’t include the work week going from 48 to 42 hours,” said city treasurer Onorio Colucci. “The numbers are going to get worse next year,” he said.

Francis said there are lots of areas where savings can be had, and he points to London as one city which no longer allows its on-duty fire crews to go on shopping runs in their pumper and aerial trucks.

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